Skyway Skuffle report

Once again Dave Aschwanden beat everybody and Christie Aschwanden beat all of the women and almost all of the men coming in one and three overall to capture the male and female wins in the Skyway Skuffle 10K freestyle race. Russ Bollig travelled from Broomfield and Kari Distefano travelled from Telluride to push Dave and Christie taking second for men and women. There was a good turnout for the race despite unsettled weather. Some other notable finishes from the pack were Kelsey Follett, member of the new Mesa State College Nordic Team, 4th place woman and 11th overall, Stu Krebs still cruising along at 75 in his vintage red suit, and Marty Wacker who decided to teach himself how to skate during his first ski race and finished smiling. Good job, everybody! Check out the nice coverage and photo of the race in the Sunday Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.

 

The snow was cold and not very fast but the course was in great shape, firm and smooth. Thanks to groomer Jon Canty for race day grooming and fellow groomers Kenton Shaw and Al Fournier for consistently excellent trails. At 9:30 race morning it started snowing hard and began to blow so I was thinking, "Well, here's our normal race day blizzard right on schedule." Thirty minutes later the sun was out and I was grabbing my sun block. Maybe we've paid our dues after all. Generally, the day remained overcast but calm so everyone was able to comfortably hang out for hot minestrone and a generous variety of Clif Bar products after finishing. Thanks again to Clif Bar for sponsoring our races and to Acli-Mate Energy Drink for letting us try out their product. Bill and Shirley Ela, Tom Fanticone and Nilam Hypio were our much appreciated volunteer crew.

 

Tom Ela

GMNC Race Director